I was reading through some C&C player options, and noticed that there's an unexpectedly high number of elf player races spread throughout the books. Here are some that I spotted. Am I overlooking more? Does anyone know why elves are so diverse in comparison to other races in C&C?

Gary Gygax didn't write the C&C system. It was named in homage to him*. The Designer(s) are Stephen Chenault, Davis Chenault, Mac Golden, Robert Doyel, Todd Sandy, Todd Gray, James M. Ward.

*«The name of the game derives from the Castle & Crusade Society, founded in the pre-Dungeons & Dragons era by Gary Gygax.[1] The title is in homage to the role-playing industry's birth.»

Correct. I didn't mean to imply that he designed the system, but he was writing products for it up until the time he passed. I recently listened to an interview with Stephen Chenault, where he talked about how Gary had contacted him to publish his content, but didn't want to use 3rd Edition rules. Stephen and Davis had already been talking about a simplified version of the d20 system that would run more like AD&D. When Stephen told Gary about it, Gary was sold on it.

Gary Gygax didn't write the C&C system. It was named in homage to him*. The Designer(s) are Stephen Chenault, Davis Chenault, Mac Golden, Robert Doyel, Todd Sandy, Todd Gray, James M. Ward.

*«The name of the game derives from the Castle & Crusade Society, founded in the pre-Dungeons & Dragons era by Gary Gygax.[1] The title is in homage to the role-playing industry's birth.»

Correct. I didn't mean to imply that he designed the system, but he was writing products for it up until the time he passed. I recently listened to an interview with Stephen Chenault, where he talked about how Gary had contacted him to publish his content, but didn't want to use 3rd Edition rules. Stephen and Davis had already been talking about a simplified version of the d20 system that would run more like AD&D. When Stephen told Gary about it, Gary was sold on it.

Not only was C&C marketed towards the Old School community. Gygax worked closely with its publishers and in addition to contributing to books like Castle Zagyg and others, he also openly supported the system.

If so, are any of these elf subtypes anything to do with him?

I can't say for certain, but these elf subtypes strike me as a likely nod towards Greyhawk and AD&D 1st Edition.

Gary Gygax didn't write the C&C system. It was named in homage to him*. The Designer(s) are Stephen Chenault, Davis Chenault, Mac Golden, Robert Doyel, Todd Sandy, Todd Gray, James M. Ward.

*«The name of the game derives from the Castle & Crusade Society, founded in the pre-Dungeons & Dragons era by Gary Gygax.[1] The title is in homage to the role-playing industry's birth.»

Correct. I didn't mean to imply that he designed the system, but he was writing products for it up until the time he passed. I recently listened to an interview with Stephen Chenault, where he talked about how Gary had contacted him to publish his content, but didn't want to use 3rd Edition rules. Stephen and Davis had already been talking about a simplified version of the d20 system that would run more like AD&D. When Stephen told Gary about it, Gary was sold on it.

I am now more interested than ever before in checking out C&C. I love D&D 3E for how it changed the game and made it easier to understand. So I'd love to get a better look at C&C and see how it streamlines the D20 engine further.

I am now more interested than ever before in checking out C&C. I love D&D 3E for how it changed the game and made it easier to understand. So I'd love to get a better look at C&C and see how it streamlines the D20 engine further.

You can get a feel for the rules with the free Quick Start Guide. If you like what you read, the Players Handbook is quite affordable for a hardback book of its size.

If you like what you read, the Players Handbook is quite affordable for a hardback book of its size.

Between now and Monday, 29-Oct-2018, you can use the coupon DIGITAL30 on the Troll Lord Games store site to save 30% on all PDFs. With the Players Handbook currently on sale for 50% off (US$9.99), that would make the Players Handbook a mere US$7.

Not only was C&C marketed towards the Old School community. Gygax worked closely with its publishers and in addition to contributing to books like Castle Zagyg and others, he also openly supported the system.

That does sound likely.

The 3rd Edition Era, the OGL and the SRD was a great opportunity for old TSR designers to come back and support product lines based on D&D. I don't think that WotC were expecting variant rulesets. It's certainly interesting that Gary Gygax backed C&C.

I wonder if anyone has ever made a list of the various things that ex-TSR designers have backed that were OGL based, to see if there were any significant swings in the 3rd Party Publisher market.

I can't say for certain, but these elf subtypes strike me as a likely nod towards Greyhawk and AD&D 1st Edition.

Is there anything around with an overview of the C&C elves? All I've got to go on (in this topic) are the names. There are a couple that seem similar to D&D elves, but it would be nice to be able to do a comparison of specific subraces.

Are all of these subraces nailed down to specific regions of the C&C setting?

I am now more interested than ever before in checking out C&C. I love D&D 3E for how it changed the game and made it easier to understand. So I'd love to get a better look at C&C and see how it streamlines the D20 engine further.

You can get a feel for the rules with the free Quick Start Guide. If you like what you read, the Players Handbook is quite affordable for a hardback book of its size.

Thanks for posting that, Tim.

It looks like the elves in the Quick Start Guide are the generic elves of the Player's Handbook. So I'm not sure it will help much towards your topic in general, but it's a pretty good overview of the C&C system. I also saw a location mentioned there, called the Workhouse, that looks interesting enough that it could probably have it's own topic.

Is there anything around with an overview of the C&C elves? All I've got to go on (in this topic) are the names. There are a couple that seem similar to D&D elves, but it would be nice to be able to do a comparison of specific subraces.

Are all of these subraces nailed down to specific regions of the C&C setting?

I'm not aware of a resource that pulls together information about each of the races. It would take more time than I currently have to summarize each one (I'm by no means an expert, and would need to read each one then summarize, as the content is Product Identity).

These come from several different C&C settings. Aihrde is the main campaign setting for C&C (includes the Players Handbook, Players Guide to Aihrde, Monsters & Treasure, and Expanded Races), but Hallowed Oracle is another, Bluffside is another, and Codex Celtarum and Codex Germania can either be used together or as their own individual settings, if I recall.

These come from several different C&C settings. Aihrde is the main campaign setting for C&C (includes the Players Handbook, Players Guide to Aihrde, Monsters & Treasure, and Expanded Races), but Hallowed Oracle is another, Bluffside is another, and Codex Celtarum and Codex Germania can either be used together or as their own individual settings, if I recall.

Ah. I didn't realise these were several sets of elves, rather than one large set of elves.

I suppose that, if the other races featured in two or more settings, but the elves were different for each world, the number of elves vs the number of humans, dwarves, gnomes, etc might not look so large.

Ah. I didn't realise these were several sets of elves, rather than one large set of elves.

I suppose that, if the other races featured in two or more settings, but the elves were different for each world, the number of elves vs the number of humans, dwarves, gnomes, etc might not look so large.

Interestingly enough, there doesn't appear to be nearly as much diversity from setting to setting for the other races. So there's still something special about elves going on here.

Ah. I didn't realise these were several sets of elves, rather than one large set of elves.

I suppose that, if the other races featured in two or more settings, but the elves were different for each world, the number of elves vs the number of humans, dwarves, gnomes, etc might not look so large.

Interestingly enough, there doesn't appear to be nearly as much diversity from setting to setting for the other races. So there's still something special about elves going on here.

It it one medium-sized collection of subraces that is used across all C&C settings, or is it a number of smaller collections of subraces?